Peter V’landys to join Kangaroos selection panel alongside Origin coaches

Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys will assume the Kangaroos’ chairman of selectors role and both State of Origin coaches will join him on the panel as Australia plot their World Cup defence later this year.

In a major shake-up to how Australia’s squad will be picked for the World Cup, NSW coach Brad Fittler and Queensland mentor Billy Slater have been asked to join Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga in choosing the Australian squad, which will head to the UK for the delayed tournament later this year.

V’landys will act as the chairman of selectors under a proposal due to be signed off imminently. It will be the first time an Australian team has been assembled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the international schedule.

The Kangaroos haven’t played a Test match in almost 1000 days after the postponement of last year’s event, which was triggered when Australia and New Zealand opted not to send teams to the northern hemisphere over health fears.

There were high infection rates in Europe at the time and a large number of NRL-based players yet to be vaccinated, forcing World Cup officials to delay the event by 12 months.

Undoubtedly, the Kangaroos will still start red-hot favourites for this year’s tournament despite the lack of international matches and there shapes to be a number of fascinating selection calls, most notably the halfback battle between Nathan Cleary and Daly Cherry-Evans.

Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys.Credit: Getty

The selection panel is set to choose a 40-man provisional squad mid-way through this year’s Origin series, which will be trimmed after the grand final into a travelling party.

Meninga has previously spoken of his frustration at the lack of games for Australia since their last Test match in 2019, in which Kristian Woolf’s Tonga stunned the Kangaroos. The match was played only days after V’landys assumed the ARLC chairmanship from Peter Beattie.

Laurie Daley and Darren Lockyer have more recently been included as part of the Australian selection panel, but will be replaced by two coaches who are working with the game’s elite players during a six-week Origin series.

Fittler understands the importance of international rugby league, and even said he would consider allowing Tonga-eligible players such as Daniel Tupou, Kotoni Staggs and Siosifa Talakai to play for their country during representative round given the devastating tsunami in the Pacific nation.

New Zealand and Tonga will play a mid-season Test match at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on the same weekend Fittler’s Blues and Slater’s Maroons do battle in the second Origin clash at Perth’s Optus Stadium later this month.

Australia will open their World Cup defence against Fiji at Leeds’ Headingley Stadium – just two weeks after the NRL grand final.

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